7PM: EXHIBITION OPENING – The Khmer Rouge were fanatical communists who wanted to establish the most advanced and purist form of communism in the world. With military victory over the Lon Nol government in 1975 and absolute power thus in their hands, they hastily proceeded to construct their utopia. All Cambodians were as bricks in the hands of these supreme social engineers and human lives counted for little. It resulted in the deaths of at least 1.7 million Cambodians - about a quarter of the country's population. The academic research project ENTERING THE TIGERZONE by Timothy Williams (text) and Daniel Welschenbach (photos) tries to find out, why average Cambodians had joined the Khmer Rouge movement. The exhibition is presented by the German Heinrich-Boell-Foundation.
8.30PM: CLASSIC DOCUMENTARY – By the early 1980s, the world knew thst Cambodia had been ravaged by a human catastrophe. From safe havens in Thailand, the Khmer Rouge received aid from China and the United States to wage an insurgency against the new Hanoi-backed government. The East-German documentary filmmakers Walter Heynowski und Gerhard Scheumann (Studio H&S) investigated this for the third part of their “Kampuchea”-Triology. THE JUNGLE WAR (1983, 90 min) features interviews with Ieng Sary, Son Sann and HRH Norodom Sihanouk. We invite for it Meta premiere tonight! Screening is presented by the Overseas Press Club of Cambodia (OPCC).